NAPC News 26 February 2010

Health Chiefs To be Struck Off For Failure

Managers at failing NHS trusts could be struck off under regulations proposed after a hospital scandal n which hundreds of patients died. An independent inquiry found that patients were routinely neglected or ‘left sobbing and humiliated' by staff at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.

The inquiry findings, published this week by Robert Francis QC, concluded that managers stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cost cutting.

Senior NHS management should be turned into a profession with an independent body created to discipline managers and board members, the latest inquiry said. The case highlighted the need for a proper system of ensuring accountability of executive and non-executive directors of NHS organizations, the inquiry said.

The NHS Leadership Council has already examined the possibility of a regulatory body for NHS managers along the lines of the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors.

Doctors' Dilemma With End Of Sick Note

Doctors have reservations about a new sick note regime, forecast to save the economy around $240m over the next ten years and due to come into force on 6 April 2010. Union leaders are also sounding warnings about some of the implications.

The fit note replaces the contentious sick note and gives GPs another option in deciding whether an individual can return to work. At present, the sick not comment is limited to unfit for work but from April 6 doctors will have a choice. The individual may be ‘unfit for work' or ‘may be fit for work'.
Teenage Dancers Loses Leg After Doctors Fail To Spot

A teenage dancers had her leg amputated after doctors missed four opportunities to diagnose her with cancer. Shannon Corr. 15 of Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, visited GPs complaining of agonizing pains in her right leg and shin. Doctors thought the keen jazz and ballet dancers was suffering from Osgood=Schlatter's disease, which usually affects teenage boys who play football, and advised her to go home and rest. Her mother took her to A&E and pretended she had fallen over so she could be fully examined. Doctors spotted a problem but by the time osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, was diagnosed it had spread and they were forced to amputate.

Blunder Doctor Works Again

A surgeon who removed a man's healthy kidney instead of a cancerous one has been cleared to operate again.

Rizat Murat Gurun's failure to check scans left John Heron, fighting for his life in March 2006. Mr. Heron's outraged son, also John, said of the General Medical Council's decision, that it was incredible and that family felt really let down.

Vitamin B Tests Raise Hopes For Stroke Treatment

Vitamin B could help improve the health of stroke patients, a study has concluded. Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that when teted on rats it could ‘rewire the brain' by improving blood vessels.

Dr Michael Chopp told the International Stroke Conference in Texas that if the treatment work as well in humans it offered a ‘low-cost, easily tolerated treatment'.

Careful Girls, Your Make Up Is Out Of Date

Cosmetics owned by most British women are up to four years out of date, research revealed this week. Eye shadow, blusher, lipstick, lip gloss, eyebrow pencils and perfume were often well past their use by date, putting women's health at risk.

This week, Sara Stern, director of cosmetics at Debenhams, which carried out the study, said reluctance to throw away old products was a risky business. We would not hesitate to throw out mouldy or bacteria ridden food and same standards should be applied to lotions and potions. Hopefully, this call to action would encourage women to have a ruthless spring clean of their cosmetic collections.

Hidden Dangers In Soups With More Salt Than Crisps

Some ready to eat soups sold by high street chains contain more salt than adults should eat in an entire day, a report warned this week. Popular bands on supermarket shelves were often no healthier, with manufacturers still a long way from meeting salt reduction targets, the campaign group, Consensus Action On Salt And Health (CASH) said.

High slat intake has been linked to several health conditions, including high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease.

Breast Screener Faces Inquiry

A hand-held breast-screener on sale over the internet and at Boots could give women ‘false reassurance' said the consumer group Which? The Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is investigating the £85 Breastlight but the manufacturer, PWB Heatth, was ‘very confident' the product passed all necessary safety tests.

Second Baby For Former Cancer Patient After Tissue Transplant

A former cancer patient has made medical history by giving birth to two daughters after fertility was restored with ovarian tissue that had been frozen. Stinne Bergholdt, a doctor from Odense, Denmark, is the first woman in the world to given birth twice after undergoing the procedure, though several others have had one child. Dr Bergholdt, now 32, was given a diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma, a rare cancer that mainly affects the bones, in 2004. Before starting chemotherapy, which could have left her sterile, part of her right ovary was removed and frozen. In December 2005, after successful treatment, six strips of frozen ovarian tissue were thawed and transplanted on to what remained of her right ovary.

Professor Claus Yding Andersen, of University Hospital of Copenhagen, who has pioneered the technique, and treated Dr Bergholdt, said as long as the tissue remained properly stored in liquid nitrogen, it could remain functional for 40 years.

Drug Maker Facers £775m Fine Over Abuse Of Gaviscon Sales

The Office of Fair Trading said this week that Reckitt Benckiser had abused its best selling position in the market for supplying heartburn medicines to the NHS. As the deadline for patent prescribing the drug in favour of its newer, more expensive Gaviscon Advance. According o the Office of Fair Trading, Gaviscon Original was removed from the NHS prescription data base by Reckitt Benckiser in 2005 so that any doctor searching for Gavsicon would come across the more expensive version.

This is the first time a company has been accused of deliberately removing its medicine from NHS prescription software to limit sales of cheaper drugs. A spokesperson for the company said that Reckitt Benckiser believed it competed fairly and within the letter and spirit of the law in all of its operations and had co-operated fully with the Office of Fair Trading throughout the inquiry.

Stillbirths Four Times More Likely WithIVF

Women who have fertility treatment are four times more likely to have a stillborn baby than those who conceived naturally, according to a study published this week. Experts studied the effect of IVF and ICSI compared with women who either got pregnant naturally or who had other fertility treatments.

The research, published in the journal Human Reproduction, looked at Danish pregnancies from 19989 to 2006. The risk of stillbirth in women who conceived after IVF or ICSI was 16.2 per 1,000 live births. The researchers said that this might indicate that the increased risk of stillbirth was not explained by infertility and could be due to other factors, such as the technology involved in IVF/ICSI or some physiological differences in couples that required such treatment.

Labour Loses Fight To Cut Teenage Pregnancies

A ten year strategy costing millions of pounds to cut the ‘shameful' number of teenage pregnancies in Britain has failed to make any serious impact. Figure out this week showed that Britain still had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe. About 40,000 under 18s or 40 per 1,000 become pregnant each year - a modest fall from the 1998 tally of 46.6 per 1,000.

Among plans announced this week, is more access to long acting contraception, such as implants and injections, and phone texts to remind girls to use contraceptives. However, ministers also voiced frustration at regional variations in tackling teenage pregnancy, blaming local authorities for not implementing the strategy effectively.

Specialist Nurses Plea

Nurses who provide specialist services for the long-term sick cannot deliver care to all who need it, health unions and charities have said. The Royal College of Nursing surveyed almost 300 specialist nurses in 60 NHS organizations and charities and found that only 36 per cent thought that all those who needed specialist care received it.

The union is calling for funding to be guaranteed for specialist posts, estimating that nurses could save £56 million a year on care for Parkinson's patients and £180 million by treating multiple sclerosis sufferers at home.